UPDATED: Duncan Bannatyne turns to Twitter to capture blackmailer

Earlier today, the millionaire received a tweet saying: "My name is Yuri Vasilyev and I’m looking for a £35,000 investment to stop us hurting your Hollie Bannatyne. We will bring hurt and pain into your life. We are watching her. She is very attractive. Want photos? Tweet using the hashtag #4money to confirm payment will be made."

The entrepreneur, who said he has tracked down the Twitter user to Moscow, responded with: "I offer £25,000 reward for the capture of the coward who calls himself @YuriVasilyev_ Double if his arms are broken first." The tweet has since been deleted but here is a screenshot:

Bannatyne later upped the reward to £30,000 for "info leading to his arrest".

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Many of Bannatyne's followers have responded to his call for help with people tweeting phone numbers, email addresses and a Google+ account with the same name as Yuri Vasilyev.

UPDATE:

Durham Police has issued a statement: "Durham Constabulary can confirm Duncan Bannatyne has reported a number of threatening messages he had received via email and Twitter in which threats were made against a member of his family. These appeared to originate from an email address based in Russia. We have been liaising since then with Mr Bannatyne and conducting enquiries into the credibility of these threats."

Bannatyne said: "My family is well protected, but I take any threat to them very seriously and will do all I can to ensure the person or people involved are caught."